Walsh: No Public "Money" for Boston 2024

Yesterday, Mayor Walsh announced a clarification of his 'no public money' pledge for Boston 2014 Olympics.

"The first thing we'll do is give Boston 2024 every parcel of land owned by the City of Boston that Boston 2024 needs to do this thing right. Then we'll buy the land they need that we don’t own and give it to them," Walsh said. "While Boston 2024 investors are among the wealthiest and most highly compensated captains of industry in the Commonwealth, they can't bring the Olympics to Boston unless we give them what we have and they want."

Walsh went on to explain, "Last year was a bad year for private equity and CEOs. The 1% got only 94% of all new income so we should soften the blow by giving away our assets for the glory and profit of Boston 2024 investors. And think of the Para Olympians."

Walsh also hinted that we could raise hundreds of millions of dollars by borrowing it from Wall Street and promising to pay it back with tax revenue from real estate tax developments that might be built. "We could give that money to Boston 2024 so they can get this thing done," Walsh explained, "And that doesn’t violate the no public money pledge because it's not money that we have now, and later, when we pay it back, we wont have it then either. To my way of thinking, City of Boston could raise close to a billion this way for Boston 2024 or more if they need it, and it would be awesome."

Asked about cost overruns Walsh said, "I don't worry about that, if it happens we'll deal with it. Some folks in the neighborhoods might have to sell their homes but they'll get a lot of more money for them because real estate is going to get much more expensive in Boston when the Olympics come to town."